He stopped rubbing his arm and averted his gaze away from her. “I don’t know if you wanna hear this, or if you’re ready.”
“If I’m asking, don’t you think I’m ready?” She moved to be within his gaze, smiling sweetly at him. Strong feelings of love and reassurance flowed from her into him, as he sighed.
“Alright, I’ll tell you. Come on,” he waved her out of the room and out of the ward. She followed him, curious where he was leading her. After a few turns, they walked down into one of the classrooms, all of which were empty this time of day. He took a chair and turned it around so he could prop his arms up on the back of it. He motioned for her to take a seat too, so she did. “First of all, I wasn’t looking for someone. Well, I was but not someone to turn. I was looking for Candice.”
“Candice, that’s the other female Beta, right?” She remembered the name mentioned a few times before.
“Yes, she had just gone missing, so I was trying to track her. I didn’t have much luck after a few days of running in wolf form, but I wasn’t willing to give up. Day and night I circled, checking everything until I finally smelled something. It was your chickens.”
“My chickens! Oh no, they are all probably dead by now with no one to feed them. Poor things,” she lamented.
“Um, don’t worry about them they, um, are out of pain,” he finished speaking as if in a question, but the sheepish smile he gave her made it not a question.
“What? Why did– did you eat all my chickens?!” she exclaimed.
“Well, I was hungry,” he hung his head a little as he answered, his eyes tilted up at her. She groaned, but motioned for him to continue. He sat up, coughed, and continued, “Well, anyway… As I was, um ‘eating’, I heard a noise nearby. My eyes trained onto you, coming outside. As soon as I laid eyes on you, my wolf reared up more, nearly taking over. It saw something in you that I couldn't recognise yet. I guess this is what it saw,” he made a motion pointing between the pair of them.
“Us? As in being together? All that time ago?”
“At first I thought it was a kind of bloodlust. From ancient texts, some werewolves who were under a lot of stress or extreme hunger, were said to suffer from a kind of bloodlust. They become savage, attacking anything and everything that got in their way until completely sated or stopped. It’s like they went berserk or something, completely out of their minds. But in this day and age, everything is taken care of in most packs. Food is easily come by, pack’s haven’t been stronger and Ferals are really uncommon in most areas. Well, they were. Something is going on, and I was going to prove it. That’s why I left.
“Anyway, seeing you triggered something, and I couldn't stop myself in time. I attacked you. You tried to turn around and run, but my jaws on your shoulder stopped any real effort to fight back or flee,” he spoke softly, sadly. He still felt bad about attacking her. She placed a hand on his arm and smiled kindly. She understood it still hurt him, she wasn't upset. He nodded in understanding. “It seems the pack was out looking for me that night because Beatrice and a couple others found me, with my teeth dug into your shoulder. Beatrice ordered me to release my hold, and I tried to fight back, not willing to give you up. She pushed harder, with her power and rank, and I was forced down. I wasn’t thinking clearly, had I been of clear mind you would have… well, she stopped me.”
“I don’t remember any of that,” Elizabeth added when he paused.
“I’m not surprised, you were bleeding a lot and the change had already begun when they found me. Beatrice looked down at you, slowly dying on the ground a few feet from your house, and she ordered us to finish you. She didn't think you’d make it back to the den, but you convinced her,” he smiled at the memory.
“I what?” she asked, surprised. “How?”
“Defiant, even in the beginning. When she leaned down to meet your eyes, you met her right back. Bleeding out everywhere, teeth marks in your shoulder and scratches in your back, you still lifted your head enough to meet her eyes level for a few seconds. Everyone was shocked. Then your strength finally gave out, and you collapsed, gasping for air. One of my teeth punctured your lung, it had started to fill with blood while my saliva was working to change you and save you at the same time. Beatrice acted quickly after that. She ordered the fastest one with us to run back and prepare a trauma bay for you. I was to switch into my hybrid form and carry you back as fast as I could. Beatrice shifted to hybrid too, to try to speed the change along enough to keep you alive with her power. It was always meant to heal, and by pushing you to keep breathing, even if subconsciously, it helped enough for the doctors to save you. I owe her and them much, but not as much as I feel like I owe you.”
“I’m alright now, I don’t regret anything. Being turned or nearly dying. I guess I have even more reason to live life to the fullest now, and if I had to nearly die, then at least I got a whole new life to live now.” She leaned forward, brushing a light kiss on his lips. He deepened it by moving a hand behind her head and pulling her closer. Pulling away only to take a breath, they stayed in that room for several minutes before finally parting with a happy sigh.
“I think we’ve been hiding long enough, let’s go see if anyone needs our help,” Nick said as he stood and put the chair back. Elizabeth did the same as they walked out of the classroom and down the hall, hand in hand. Yes, she thought, what better way to start a new life than to leave the old one behind.
Chapter Twenty-Four
It had been a week and three days since Ginger had come to the den to go through her change. Dr. Gerald had said that she could awaken any day now, so Elizabeth visited her friend as often as possible, she wanted to be there when she came to. She wanted to apologize and explain everything. It was her third visit that day, she was talking about beating Camila in their most recent DDR round when alarms started sounding. A nurse came rushing in, checked the monitors and computer readouts quickly.
“What’s going on? Why is that going off?” The sound was shrill to her ears. The nurse jerked around quickly, surprise on her face. Seems Elizabeth had put some dominance in her voice and she hadn’t meant to. “Sorry, please tell me what that machine is doing.”
“It registers brain activity, it suddenly jumped up higher than it should. I can't confirm this, but I think she’ll be awake soon,” she explained quickly before stepping up to the door calling for Dr. Gerald. He came in shortly after being called, checking Ginger’s heart with the stethoscope and turning the frantically beeping machine off. He was nodding about something, motioning for more staff to come in. She watched, frightened, as they started taking monitors off of her.
Dr. Gerald stood up from his place and, upon seeing Elizabeth there panicked and worried, walked over to her. “No need to worry dear, we are just making ‘er a bit more comfortable before she wakes up. It’ll be any moment now. There now, dear, that’s the face I like to see!” He patted her cheek at her growing smile, tears spilling out of her shining emerald eyes. “No tears now, do you want to cry for your friend now? Jonathan, go and inform the Alpha that the new one will be awake soon.”
“No!” All movement stopped as every pair of eyes watched her. “Not yet, I’ll tell her after I speak to my friend. I want her to see a familiar face first before anyone else.” The medical personnel all looked confused as they turned to the doctor in charge.
“Alright dear, we’ll leave your friend to you then. Please don’t leave the Alpha out of it for too long, though. She has a very important role in greeting new pack members.”
“Right, I remember,” she droned sarcastically. She remembered how nice Beatrice was when she woke up. After finishing their work, leaving only her IV tube in and a heart monitor on, everyone filed out of the room and Elizabeth waited for what was to come. She sat there, worried about how her friend would take this news and decided she would do whatever she could to make her understand quickly. Quicker was better, in her case. Ginger didn’t like long drawn out things. She didn’t have long to wait, becau
se ten minutes later, Ginger stirred. Elizabeth stood, quickly moving to her friend’s side and taking her hand. “Ginger?”
“Liza? Ugh, what happened, last thing I remember was… you! You said all those mean things and really hurt my feelings and,” she tried to pull her hand away, only to find it strapped down. “Wait, what’s going on? Why am I tied down? What’s going on?!”
“Calm down and I’ll explain. First, what do you hear?” She decided to start with something small.
“Hear? I hear you, what are you-” Ginger was still trying to struggle out of the restraints.
“Close your eyes and listen,” she said, squeezing her friend’s hand.
“But I don’t-”
“Ginger! Just do it, trust me. Please?” The other woman huffed but did as she was told.
“I hear you, breathing.”
“Good, listen harder.”
“I still don’t-”
“Just trust me, dang it!”
“Alright!” she sneered, turning her head away. “I hear heartbeats, two of them. Mine and yours and- wait, what’s that?”
“What do you hear?” Hope rose in Elizabeth’s voice. Please let this work!
“A voice that’s like mine, but not. You’ll what? Protect me, I don’t… I don’t understand, Liza? Are you saying those things?” Her friend sounded scared. Her eyes shot open and staring terrified at Elizabeth.
“No, that is your inner self, inner wolf. This is gonna be hard to understand but when you smacked me, my saliva got into your bloodstream and changed you. Changed you into what I am. You know the reason I’ve been missing for so long? That’s because I’m not human anymore, I’m a werewolf. And because of me, so are you.”
“I don't believe you! They don’t exist, you just wanted to run away with that hot guy I saw you with, that’s all! Don’t lie and tell me fake creatures are real just to cover your own hind end.”
“Then I’ll prove it to you if you want me to.” Ginger looked ready to say yes, but stopped, closing her mouth again. Something about her gaze told her she didn’t need to. She believed, almost, but still fought the reality.
“It can’t be. I won’t believe it!” She had calmed down while listening, but started to fight against the restraints again, they still held her firmly in place. “Let me go! I have to leave, I have to go to work. Dan will fire me if I don’t get back soon, you know he hates me already!”
“Ginger, calm down. You can’t break these restraints, they are strong enough to hold a werewolf,” Elizabeth held her hands up, as if to ward off her panic and calm her down again.
“They aren't real!” she shouted. Elizabeth felt her heart breaking for her friend. Without another word, she carefully worked to sit up the bed Ginger was in enough to allow her to see the floor. She took a few steps back from the bed, pulling off her shirt. “What are you doing?!”
“Proving to you that we are real.” After taking her shorts off and placing them on a chair nearby, she called for her wolf to take over. The shift was effortless, as always, and happened quickly. Ginger watched in shock as her friend became a beautiful golden blonde wolf with a jagged pattern of darker yellow shades along her back.
“Liza?” The wolf cocked her head to the side, tongue lolling out of her mouth, causing Ginger to stop straining against the restraints. “Okay, that’s some nice trick, you even have Liza’s eyes.”
‘I am Liza,’ the wolf spoke into Ginger’s head.
“What?! Liza, how am I hearing you in my head?”
‘Because we are pack, and I can speak to you this way. I’m going to shift back now, okay?’ Elizabeth watched her friend’s nod and shifted back into her human form. She put her clothes back on, bra and underwear having slid off during the shift, and sat on the side of the bed. “Believe me now?”
“Yes. I can’t see any wires or strings or mirrors, so yes,” pure astonishment in her voice, she watched Elizabeth as if she would grow a second head too. A wolf head. Her face was so funny, she almost laughed at her friend.
“I know that must have been quite upsetting, but know that I will be here to help you every step of the way, okay? We’ll be together for a long time now.”
“Oh, well that’s good. Guess I can call my parents and siblings now, huh? They are probably worried about me by now. How long has it been anyway?” she asked, surprisingly calm considering the situation.
“A week and a half, but you can’t call your family. Don’t worry though, we got in touch with them already. You are technically working for the Alpha’s company just like me. I gave you a glowing recommendation,” Elizabeth beamed at her friend. “Beatrice makes clothes like what I’m wearing. You’ll have some in your den once they release you, I know you’ll love this style because I hated it at first.”
“Hey!” Ginger scoffed while Elizabeth laughed. She couldn't hold it anymore. “This is all so much to take in, can you maybe explain it a bit slower?”
“Sure, as long as you need.” So she stayed, answering as many questions as she could while also being honest. She didn’t want to lie after everything she had been through, so she told Ginger if she couldn’t answer certain things. Things like when she could leave she couldn’t answer, that wasn’t up to her. But when she asked about hot guys, she just laughed. That she could answer. They stayed and talked for more than an hour before a nurse came in to check on them. Ginger had gotten every last bit of information she could from Elizabeth, and looked tired.
“I think I’m gonna need a bit to really absorb it all. Thanks for staying with me, Liza.”
“Of course, Ginger. I’ll be back later to visit you, okay? Now I have to go report to the Alpha myself and tell her you’re awake.” After a smile and a pat on the hand, Elizabeth walked out of the room content in what she had done. Hopefully she had fully prepared her friend for the next stage of this new life. She was just walking out the door to the medical ward when there was a scream back the way she had come. Being the only authority nearby, she rushed back in, feeling a breeze blow past her. Taking a second to wonder what that was, but quickly brushing it off as the air conditioning, she rushed to the location of the screaming. It was coming from Ginger’s room.
“Something grabbed me! Lifted me up! I have to get out of here!” She was frantic.
“Ginger, hey, relax I’m here now. What happened?” She tried to be heard over the screaming, but Ginger was too loud. Finally she pulled on her place in the pack, preparing an order on her lips. “Ginger, stop!” She complied instantly, eyes trained on her friend. “Now, tell me what happened.”
“Something grabbing my arm!” she cried. “I couldn’t see anything, but I felt it! Uh, Liza? What are you doing?”
“Trying to figure out who was in here besides us.” Elizabeth started to sniff the air, not sensing anything out of the ordinary. She looked on the floor, for any sign of an intruder, but not seeing anything. No footprints or dirt or...suddenly, her sharp eyes trained on something small under the gurney that she recognized. A cookie crumb. She picked it up, put it in a paper towel, wrapped it up quickly and put it in her pocket. She went to the door and called for a nurse. “Lock this room down, no one gets in or out except myself, Nick, or Beatrice, got it?”
“But what if there’s a-”
“Do you understand?” Her eyes bore into the nurse. He nodded his head in understanding and she looked back at Ginger. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe Ginger. Just don’t get hurt until I get back.” Ginger agreed to try and Elizabeth left the room, shutting the door tightly behind her. She glared at the nurse one last time before walking out of the med ward once again, in search of someone who she hadn't thought about in a long time.
Who she found was not who she was seeking, but would help nonetheless. Camila was leaving a family den, finished her babysitting duties and, upon seeing Elizabeth, called out to her friend. It took her a couple tries before she turned around, smiling at the smaller woman. Camila thought she looked stressed, and this alarmed her.
“Hi, Camila. Sorry, I was distracted. Hey can you answer something for me?”
“Sure Liza, what’s up?” The smaller woman’s smile faded a bit. First her concerned face and now a question, she didn’t like this.
“Have you seen Jeremiah around? I need to see him.”
“Ugh, him? Why do you want him?”
“Just answer my question,” she snapped. Camila shrunk away from her friend, becoming submissive. “Sorry, I’m a little upset. Please, will you tell me if you’ve seen him?”
“S-sure, I saw him leaving his den a while ago, why? What’s up?” She recovered a bit of her normal self, but was always wary. Sometimes Elizabeth hated being like this, so emotional and easy to trigger, her placement in the pack now wasn’t helping matters. She didn’t want to threaten her friend.
Pureblood (Pureblood series) Page 23
